The Rt Hon. The Baroness Stowell of Beeston, MBE Chair of the Charity Commission 102 Petty France, Westminster London SW1H 9AJ By post and email to
[email protected] cc
[email protected] As from Mr Andrew Graystone, 17 Rushford Avenue, Manchester M192HG
[email protected] Wednesday 27th May 2020 Dear Lady Stowell You recently received a letter from some individual trustees of Christ Church Oxford making a series of allegations against their Dean, the Very Revd Professor Martyn Percy. We wish to express our confidence in Martyn Percy. We Know him in our various capacities, as a man of consistently good character, an exceptional scholar, a respected public servant, and an outstanding Christian leader. We do not speculate on the reasons why some members of the Governing Body of Christ Church wish to go to such extreme lengths to destroy the reputation of their Dean and to break his spirit. But we do know that : • The recent letter is the latest episode in a sustained campaign against the Dean led by senior members of the college Governing Body since his appointment. • The specific allegations against Martyn Percy have changed over time, but each allegation has been disproved. In August of last year Dean Percy was wholly exonerated after an extensive investigation by Sir Andrew Smith, a retired High Court judge. - 1 - • The signatories of the letter are far from objective. Several of them were revealed by Sir Andrew to have employed devious methods and offensive language in their efforts to breaK his resolve, and some will be parties to an Employment Tribunal to be heard next year.